Review: The Croods: A New Age

It is a strange time to have a sequel to The Croods. It has been eight years since the original got released and I remember it being a solid success both financially and critically.

So I am quite confused as to why it has taken this long for a sequel to arrive.

A lot of people like myself have almost forgotten how enjoyable the first one was.

I remember being surprised how much I liked it. Big positives was the strong family chemistry, the strength of the gags and the pleasing visuals.

I'm happy to say that it was as if they had never left and it was more of the same. 

The opening few minutes felt like a nice reminder of the world and characters that we saw back in 2013. Once that had been covered, I felt pretty comfortable and now along for the ride. I had forgotten how frantic the pacing can get and how fluid the style was. The story was solid enough, the characters all having their time to shine with solid development, the gags were consistently funny and well spread out across the duration and the visuals were bright, colourful, amazing detailed and could well be the films biggest positive. With the added camerawork diving through and sweeping across landscapes, they showed off their visual designs with great confidence.

All the voicework has a stellar cast and all worked well. Nicolas Cage continues to show how great of a voice he has for voice acting, Emma Stone gave a lot of energy to her character, Ryan Reynolds and Kelly Marie Tran had good comradery and Peter Dinklage and Leslie Mann contributed well.

There weren't any major negatives. I was to be picky, the strong I think could have been stronger. It was a perfectly functional one. But if it wouldn't to be great rather than good, there was certainly room for improvement with the depth of the plot.

That being said, I was pretty entertained by it and I think it was as good as the first one. It's a fun watch from start to finish and you'll be smiling when leaving the screen. As mentioned before, the visuals are pleasing to the eye, the gags are solid and not just aimed for the kids.

With both films being entertaining and rewarding viewings, it will be interesting if they go for a third installment. I certainly would not object to another family adventure.

Rating: 7/10